


A Number

by Daerwyn



Series: A Collection of Drabbles by Helmaninquiel [38]
Category: The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types, The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Aging, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-28
Updated: 2015-11-28
Packaged: 2018-05-03 21:22:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5307278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daerwyn/pseuds/Daerwyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Imagine being childhood lovers with Aragorn and not seeing him for years. One day, you find him and call out his name. Recognizing your voice instantly he turns to you still feeling for you.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Number

Aragorn had not aged a day. As you watched him dismount his horse, the features were nearly the same as they were when you were young. He did not seem to notice you.

How could he recognize you in a crowd of those you were like? Crippled now, gray, with so many cracks and craigs in the skin it was like the rough mountainside the very tower was carved out of. 

He handed the reigns to someone you could not see, but you brought your feet forward to get a closer look at this miracle. You did not think you’d see him again, after he had ridden away for a great battle, and he had never returned. Only you knew the true name he bore when he had whispered it to you, seconds before he had turned away from you to the battlefields. 

He was a lifetime away from you now, but there was always hope that perhaps he was deceiving you. That perhaps your eyes had finally gone. Or your end had come and it had brought you the salvation you had held onto in your youth.

“Aragorn?” His name was like a forgotten memory. But as you spoke it, you saw him pause slightly, and when he turned, you knew that you had not been deceived. Perhaps this was your end, but it was an end you would proudly, and gladly take. He looked much the same, though maybe a few years older. And he had facial hair where as when he was a young man, it had been sparse and tickled more than it had shown on his skin. 

He stared at you a moment, at a loss, but you knew the moment that he recognized you. The moment he could see past the sixty years on you, and see the young woman that had laid beside him for nearly three years. His face had fallen from lines of confusion to a perfectly smooth surface of dawning realization. “Y/N?” he whispered. His feet stepped towards you immediately and he drew you close to him by gripping your arms as if he wished to hug you but did not know if it would caused damage. “By the Valar, you look…”

“Old?” you supplied warmly. “It has been so long, but you have a face that I could never forget.”

“Oh… Y/N, you know age is just a number to me,” Aragorn said softly. And he looked truly heartbroken, taking you in up close. “What became of you? I had thought you dead in the disease that ravaged the lands long ago.”

“Perhaps if I was any less of a person,” you remarked. “What did you take me for?” But you lowered your gaze. “You never returned.”

“I could not.”

“I never stopped waiting.”

“I could not stay with you and lead a false life. You can see clearly now why I could not stay.”

“Is it a curse? Are you elven?”

“Half elven, yes.” You swallowed. He had never mentioned such. Nor had you cared to ask. You had been blissfully ignorant in those days, blissfully believing that love would never tear you away from him. “I age so slowly that my lifetime is many of yours. I could not put you through that pain of that sort of life… I could not put myself through such torment.” He clutched your wrinkled, cold hands and lifted them to his lips. “But it is an honor to see you today.”

“An honor I return to you. It has been sixty years and yet you still do not stop from entering my dreams or my thoughts.”

A smile you remembered lit his face, and you felt young again with the way your heart fluttered. “Nor have you left mine. There will only ever be one Y/N in my life. My first love and certainly my truest.” He leaned forward, kissing your temple. “I am sorry.”

“It is too late to change it,” you spoke. “Let us just part from this as friends. So that I may finally die in peace to know what truly happeneed on those fields, and you may find someone young and much more beautiful to love.”

“No one will ever be as beautiful as you.”

“I meant more beautiful than you,” you returned with a teasing grin. And he chuckled. 

“Oh, how I missed that.”

You shifted on your feet, the small of your back beginning to feel sore. “I only speak the truth.”

His gaze did not waver. “That you do.”


End file.
